WNLJ-TV
WNLJ-TV is the New Line Network-affiliated television station for Central Michigan. Licensed to the nearby town of Onondaga, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10. The station can also be seen on Comcast and Viacom Cable channel 4 in Lansing, on MediaOne channel 10 in East Lansing and Jackson and on Charter Communications channel 13 in Durand. It can also be seen in high definition on digital channel 232. Owned by Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation, it has studios on American Road (near I-96) in Lansing, while its transmitter is located in Onondaga. History WNLJ-TV began broadcasting on October 13, 1990, operating from a converted appliance store while it's studios on American Road were under construction. The station was originally owned by Joel Ferguson. Before 1990, Lansing had been one of the biggest markets in the United States without a full-time locally-based New Line affiliate, even though it had been large enough to support one since at least the network's sign-on in 1968. Before WNLJ signed on, Lansing was instead served by a translator of charter owned-and-operated station WCNLN-TV Chicago, which also broadcast on VHF channel 10. As the translator was actually in fact a direct rebroadcaster of WCNLN with no local information for the Lansing market added on, most residents wound up watching WNEM-TV in Bay City from its 1974 sign-on until WNLJ debuted. Other parts of the market received New Line from WOTV (now WNLGR) in Grand Rapids via that station's Kalamazoo-based channel 51 translator, and charter owned-and-operated station WNLND-TV in Detroit. As a condition of the station receiving a New Line affiliation, its transmitter had to be located so that there was minimum overlap between the WNEM and WNLJ signals. Ferguson eventually sold a half-stake in WNLJ to Outlet Company in 1999. Outlet was acquired by Berfield/Willis in 2016. WNLJ-TV affiliated a subchannel with The Local AccuWeather Channel in late 2006. Construction permit for permanent digital equipment is granted in April 2008. The station's digital signal was broadcast on Channel 57. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, to conclude the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 10. The station changed its second subchannel, 'Weather Authority', in late 2014 to WeatherNation TV. Lansing, specifically outside the Michigan capitol building, was the site of one of several pro-Donald Trump rallies on March 4, 2017. Although not as violent as a rally in Berkeley, California on that day, which witnessed in horror as demonstrators gutted and destroyed the eastern suburban San Francisco Bay Area bureau of fellow New Line station KNLSF during the rally, some clashes did break out in the Lansing rally. WNLJ, however, was not immune to the clashes, as a news van was set on fire and an anti-Trump demonstrator punched a reporter while he was covering the rally. Gallery Logo history Other pictures NLN Bug 2002.jpg|Screencap from December 31, 2002 with New Line's screen bug of the period. Programming Syndicated programming on WNLJ includes (insert shows here) among others. News operation WNLJ presently broadcasts 12 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with two hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). When the station signed on in 1990, newscasts were titled Your Capitol News 10. WNLJ has always had a turnover in anchors, as a result, WNLJ placed dead last in the local Nielsen ratings, a slump it has yet to recover from as of 2017. Due to budget concerns, WNLJ's news staff has been cut over the last few years. As a result, the station's weekday morning broadcasts are now anchored and reported entirely solely by one person. Its weekday morning show News 10 Sunrise was originally launched upon the station's sign-on as a local news segment during New Line Sunrise eventually expanding to the current one-hour-long broadcast. Since its weekday noon show was canceled in the late-1990s, the station has not offered a newscast during the midday hours unlike most other New Line affiliates. It also differs from most other New Line affiliates in that it does not offer an early-evening newscast. Programming Schedule from March 1997 Category:New Line Network Category:Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation Category:Lansing, MI Category:Jackson, MI Category:Onondaga, MI Category:Michigan Category:Channel 10 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1990 Category:New Line Network affiliates Category:Stations that use its call letters